As the capabilities of computing devices continue to evolve, the power consumed by these devices during normal operation continues to grow as well. Often, computing devices and their electrical components draw power from a direct current (DC) power source. However, mains-power sources (e.g., wall outlets) generally supply power for consumer use as alternating current (AC) power because power is naturally generated as AC power. In light of this, computing devices often receive power supplied by mains-power sources from a power adapter which converts AC power to DC power, and may also step-down or otherwise change the voltage at which the DC power is supplied to the computing devices. To help detect and prevent device faults in computing devices, the power adapters may include current limiting circuits that impose an upper limit on the amount of current that can be delivered to the computing devices. While these current limiting circuits prevent amounts of current, and thus power, from being provided to computing devices that is over the upper current limits, device faults often occur in computing devices which draw amounts of current lower than the upper limit of the computing devices' normal operating limits, but nonetheless result in dangerous levels of power consumption for a device fault. Accordingly, dangerous device faults in computing devices can go undetected by current limiting circuits in power adapters, but still result in and potentially dangerous amounts of heat being created in the computing devices.